Tower of the Sun Stories From the Middle East and North Africa eBook Michael J Totten
Download As PDF : Tower of the Sun Stories From the Middle East and North Africa eBook Michael J Totten 
Prize-winning author Michael J. Totten’s gripping first-person narratives from the war zones, police states, and revolutionary capitals of the Middle East and North Africa paint a vivid picture of peoples and nations at war with themselves, each other, and—sometimes—with the rest of the world.
His journeys take him from Libya under the gruesome rule of Muammar Qaddafi to Egypt before, during and after the Arab Spring; from the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights in Syria on the eve of that country’s apocalyptic civil war to a camp on the Iran-Iraq border where armed revolutionaries threaten to topple the Islamic Republic regime in Tehran; from the contested streets of conflict-ridden Jerusalem to dusty outposts in the Sahara where a surreal conflict few have even heard of simmers long after it should have expired; and from war-torn Beirut and Baghdad to a lonely town in central Tunisia that seeded a storm of revolution and war that spread for thousands of miles in every direction.
Tower of the Sun is a timeless close-up of one of the world’s most violent and turbulent regions that will resonate for decades to come.
“A decade in the making, Tower of The Sun is not just an authoritative, intimate and lively reconnaissance of the tectonic upheavals shaking the earth from North Africa's Maghreb to Iraqi Kurdistan. It’s also a masterpiece of clear-eyed political analysis and literary journalism in the travel-diary style of Paul Theroux.” – Terry Glavin, author of The Sixth Extinction
“Totten…practices journalism in the tradition of George Orwell morally imaginative, partisan in the best sense of the word, and delivered in crackling, rapid-fire prose befitting the violent realities it depicts.” Sohrab Ahmari, Commentary
“I can think of only a certain number of people as having risen to the intellectual and journalistic challenges of the last few years, and Michael J. Totten is one of them.” Paul Berman, author of Terror and Liberalism
“Michael J. Totten, to my mind, is one of the world’s most acute observers of Middle East politics. He is also an absolutely fearless reporter, both physically—he has explored the darkest corners of Middle East extremism—and morally.” Jeffrey Goldberg, author of Prisoners
Tower of the Sun Stories From the Middle East and North Africa eBook Michael J Totten
... and levels the mountains and raises the low places -- make straight a highway in the wilderness.This is another great book from Totten, who has established himself as far ahead of the pack on reporting from the Middle East, starting with his earlier and equally outstanding book, The Road to Fatima Gate. Only a handful of other journalists are remotely in the same ballpark on this subject -- one thinks of Jeffrey Goldberg or the late Christopher Hitchens (who was a friend of Totten); or a couple generations ago, David Pryce-Jones.
Each short portrait here gives you a concise snapshot of a situation, some you've heard about (but only superficially), and others you're unlikely to have heard of. There's Jersualem (everyone "knows," or thinks they know), the Golan Heights and the Druze, Tunisia, Morocco, and the centrality of Egypt in the Arab world. There's the most fascinating, vanished from the world media after the Cold War ended, but still going on, the Western Sahara and Polisario.
Not bad for a freelancer like Totten -- it's an advantage to him, clearly, in spite of the financial constraints: he doesn't have to run with the herd or follow the fashions and groupthink of major Western capitals and cultural elites. He thrives with his natural intelligence, empathy, and uncanny ability to size up what many Westerners find difficult to understand.
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Tower of the Sun Stories From the Middle East and North Africa eBook Michael J Totten Reviews
Love the way Michael Totten writes about the Middle East and Africa. He spells out the current situations while explaining the history of the regions in a clear, and at least for me, easy to follow manner. That, in itself, is a talent. Would highly recommend this book for those wanting to understand regional and cultural issues of the Middle East and northern Africa.
This fascinating travelogue by Mr Totten is compelling. It is full of personal observations, sharp analysis and socio-political commentary. It is clearly written by an experienced well travelled and well read observer of people, regimes and current events. The overview of the Middle East and North Africa you will read here will help you understand things more subtly and deeply than more politically correct mainstream sources. Most of all, them author's writing style, with its wry humour and calling things what they are, is entertaining while it informs. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to understand more about this region, and how things got to be where they are today. This is the first book of Totten's I have read, and I have just downloaded another. I will be recommending Tower of the Sun to my friends.
I confess to being completely baffled by Middle Eastern politics. If you have ever watched a news report and found yourself thinking, "What's the problem? Why don't they just [fill in the blank]," Michael Totten does an excellent job of explaining the truly precarious balance in the entire region that pretty much prevents almost anything from happening. You may not remember the nuts and bolts of the intricate relationships, but you will come away with a better understanding of the greed, corruption and frustrated resignation that keeps real progress from taking place in this region.
If you think if you've seen one Islamic republic, you've seen them all, you will have your world-view turned upside down by Totten's essays on his travels through the Mideast and North Africa over the past decade or more. He shares his astute observations and interactions in a clear and entertaining fashion. You will come away with an historic appreciation of the struggles and successes of people in the Levant.
Very interesting. History has moved on even from the quite recent up-close-and-personal observations of the author, but I found it extremely interesting. Did not know the individual differences between these Muslim countries that I tend to mentally clump together as if they were more similar.
Totten has firsf-hand experience with working among the people of the Middle East.
At one point in the book, Totten repeatedly tells the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, "EVERYONE is biased." Although true, Totten's accounts are biased in such an honest, trustworthy, and non-hypocritical way that the book was an extremely refreshing read. He gets on the very ground level of politics and public opinion, speaking with members of Middle Eastern communities from many walks of life, most of whom just want peace, freedom from repression, and a chance to become, if not prosperous, at least materially and politically stable.
My favorite section of the book was his adventures in Iraq with American soldiers; he, along with the soldiers (I believe they were marines), brings a light-hearted humor to a situation that is potentially lethal and normally heavy. He manages to keep this ever-present blend of skepticism borne from years overseas, while still seriously analyzing the situations and people in the region. Finally, he postulates on the present dilemmas, the probable outcomes, and the hopeful possibilities of a region fraught with complicated ethnic relations, recent authoritarian heritage, but also a slowly increasing potential for liberal and libertarian values.
Whether you know nothing about the Middle East, or have visited several of the nation's in the region, you will undoubtedly learn more about the modern politics, people, and history by reading this extremely enlightening book.
I'm a fan of the author, and this book did not disappoint. Running the gamut of the Mideast and North Africa, Tower of the Sun was part travelogue, part history book, part political guide. From Morocco to Tunis, Libya, Egypt and his one time home in Lebanon, Totten goes where the news is and gives you a perspective you're unlikely to get anywhere else. Well worth the time.
... and levels the mountains and raises the low places -- make straight a highway in the wilderness.
This is another great book from Totten, who has established himself as far ahead of the pack on reporting from the Middle East, starting with his earlier and equally outstanding book, The Road to Fatima Gate. Only a handful of other journalists are remotely in the same ballpark on this subject -- one thinks of Jeffrey Goldberg or the late Christopher Hitchens (who was a friend of Totten); or a couple generations ago, David Pryce-Jones.
Each short portrait here gives you a concise snapshot of a situation, some you've heard about (but only superficially), and others you're unlikely to have heard of. There's Jersualem (everyone "knows," or thinks they know), the Golan Heights and the Druze, Tunisia, Morocco, and the centrality of Egypt in the Arab world. There's the most fascinating, vanished from the world media after the Cold War ended, but still going on, the Western Sahara and Polisario.
Not bad for a freelancer like Totten -- it's an advantage to him, clearly, in spite of the financial constraints he doesn't have to run with the herd or follow the fashions and groupthink of major Western capitals and cultural elites. He thrives with his natural intelligence, empathy, and uncanny ability to size up what many Westerners find difficult to understand.
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